As the news of future Chinese robotic and manned lunar landing effort is widely reported in the domestic media and foreign news services in recent days, Sun Zengqi, Vice Dean of the Department of Computer Science and Technology of the Tsinghua University and a space robot specialist, clarifies that there is no Moon landing plan at this time.

"Although Chinese space robotic specialists have carried out research for 7 years, China has not formulated a clear Moon landing plan. Lunar landing for Chinese yuhangyuan ("astronauts") is still far into the future," Sun told the newspaper yesterday at a laboratory in the university.

Sun confirmed, "The robotic lunar landing research is only a small section of the national '863 Intelligent Robots' project, the country has yet to devise a so-called 'Moon landing plan', let alone work progress.

"However, from a long range space research perspective, space robotics research is absolutely necessary. If China would press ahead with a Moon landing plan in the future, robot landing is an important component."

In 1993 Sun led a robotics research group to build a teleoperation control system in the Tsinghua University lab. Scientists use the system to simulate operation of a space robot from a ground control centre.

For the interview with the newspaper, Sun provided a demonstration of the system.

In one room when a scientist controlled the movement of the two robot arms, a simulated robot was seen moving its arms on the large display screen; following exactly the operator's instructions. A few seconds later in another room, the real robot arms would move in an identical manner.

Sun explained that the time delay was built into the simulation to take into account of the time lag between signal transmission and reception as a result of the great distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Sun admited that the robot arms presently used in the simulation system was purchased from Japan. "Building a robot is not the key point, the teleoperation control system is key to a robot stepping into space," asserted Sun. According to Sun, the reason of having two arms is to allow the robot to grab on to an object to maintain balance while working in space.

Sun elaborated a scenario of a lunar robot landing mission. During the rocket launch, the robot would be stowed in a curled position to minimize damage when the rocket accelerates. The lunar samples that the robot collects would be returned to Earth in a reentry capsule. But the robot would stay on the Moon forever because it is uneconomical to bring it back.

In his wise words Sun said, "As a leader in space technology, China's approach to realize Moon landing is more practical from a technological point of view. ... As long as the country has a plan and provides funding protection, Moon landing is not an insurmountable obstacle for China."

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